A recent poll by the Brookings Institute revealed what protests around the country had already demonstrated. Among millennials, there is increasingly less regard for freedom of speech than among previous generations.

The poll found that over 60 percent of those surveyed don’t know or don't believe that the first amendment protects “hate speech.” It found that 51 percent believed it was OK to shout down a speaker whose views they disagreed with. Nearly 20 percent even agreed that it was OK to use violence to prevent an offensive speaker from sharing their views.

Millennials have been widely disparaged for their anti-free speech positions, almost all of which is well-deserved. Few though, have taken time to reflect on the wider social failures that helped reinforce and promote those positions. In a culture where the importance of good citizenship is rarely discussed and civic engagement only occurs through social media platforms, should we be surprised when a generation devalues one of our foundational social principles?

From the beginning of Western civilization, it has been well understood that a mutual relationship between structure and citizen was necessary for a free society. When considering the framework of civil government, Aristotle offered that it wasn’t merely a structure itself that made a man free. A free man, according to Aristotle, is one who possesses the traits of character that permit him to first govern himself. Effective civil government presupposed freedom of thought and freedom of speech, but both of those freedoms presuppose the virtues of the free and the ability for the free to govern self.

Without virtuous citizens, the other pieces of the equation collapse.

Our nation was adopted on the same assumption. James McHenry, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, recorded a now famous exchange involving Benjamin Franklin. As anxious convention watchers huddled around the door of Independence Hall, Franklin, the most famous American of his day, emerged from the building. One of them, a Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia yelled to him a question. "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

Much more important than designating the nation a republic was Franklin’s ability to immediately reinforce the necessity of good citizenship. The brilliant framework that emerged from the Constitutional Convention is one of humanities greatest achievements, but it is primarily thanks to the practice of virtuous citizenship, which it enables, that makes it so. As made evident by Franklin’s response, the protection and promotion of America’s government depends entirely on the people themselves.

America’s modern free speech environment does little to demonstrate an aptitude for self-governance.

Whereas previous generations of Americans may have associated free speech with the Lincoln-Douglas debates or the Civil Rights Movement, free speech on our age is most readily connected with 140 character barbs on Twitter or the cable news yelling matches that disguise themselves as debate. Though these forums aren’t inappropriate venues for the exercise of free speech, they usually demonstrate our larger failures to promote virtuous citizenship.

The institutions that have long been critical to this promotion have particularly failed millennials. American public education has made little effort at promoting civic engagement. Last year, an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll found that a third of American adults can’t name a single branch of government. A separate poll of social studies teachers found that only 38 percent believed that “the key principles of American government should be a civic teachers top priority to impart to students.” If we don’t teach students government structure or what makes a good citizen, we shouldn’t be surprised when we have a generation ignorant of both.

Without institutions promoting virtue and good citizenship, a notable void is left. For millennials, perhaps with some level of justification, this manifests itself as a disregard for otherwise foundational principles like free speech. If ones only real interaction with free speech means Twitter and cable news, one might reason that it isn’t so important after all.

Jordan Harris is the executive director of the Pegasus Institute, an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization in Louisville, Kentucky.(Photo: Matt Stone, Courier-Journal)

The reality is that free speech, even for the most repugnant of views, is a bedrock of American society and critical to civil government. Defending it has emerged as one of the most important challenges of our time, but unless that defense begins with the promotion of virtuous citizens, we will not only fail to make the case for free speech, we will see more of our values dissolve with it.

Before we criticize millennials for their views on free speech, we need to reflect on our even bigger failure to promote good citizenship.

Jordan Harris is the executive director of Pegasus Institute, an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization in Louisville, Kentucky.